It’s hardly news to say Kanye West’s new album, Yeezus, has hit the music world with all the subtlety of a zeppelin crash. Intense, unconventional, rage-filled, experimental, and either brilliant or garbage – it’s on everyone’s lips and earpods this week.

So, even as Kanye enjoys seeing his name in the headlines all over again, let’s take a little step back and look at the circumstances surrounding the album. What might an inspiring young artist learn about how to sell music from Kanye’s latest triumph of self-promotion?

There’s Always A New Angle To Be Found

For all the many, many words that have been spent on Yeezus in the last two weeks, it’s impressive how many are devoted to simply trying to describe the album. Yeezus can only barely be described as a hip-hop album, except perhaps in structure and intent. Its angry, jarring, miasmic production mixes influences ranging from Billie Holliday to Horrorcore.

Never think that we’ve “run out” of music. As long as we’re recording ourselves, innovators will find new sounds to groove on. They’ll keep finding new ways of expressing themselves through music. You can be one of the innovators, if you just discover that new combination of sounds no one’s quite thrown together yet.

You Can’t Leave Your Personal Life Behind

OK, not all of us are going to be as open and brash with our stage personalities as Kanye West, but the visceral reactions to Yeezus online have shown how hard it is for artists to separate themselves from their music. Accusations of misogyny, racism, and a host of other claims are now flying, with West’s life once again being put under the microscope to see if he’s found wanting.

(And they always are.)

In this age of social media, you need to remember that you represent yourself at all times. If you hit it big, anything and everything you say will be analyzed. The better you know what you represent, the easier it’ll go when controversy brews.

Speaking of which…

How To Sell Music?  Controversy.

Despite significant bad buzz following its leak from fans expecting something closer to Kanye’s previous outings, the album immediately leapt to #1 on the charts and may stay there for some time. It seems the combination of inflammatory content, offbeat marketing, and Kanye being Kanye has once again created another smash seller.

After all, no one doubts Kanye had something he wanted to say, we’re just not sure what it is, or if he even cares if we figure it out.

Lesson Learned?

And, perhaps in closing, there’s another lesson to also keep in mind here, before anyone gets too eager to try to imitate Kanye’s latest outing: Life is a lot easier when you don’t care about sales. Kanye, rolling in his millions, has already said the sales of Yeezus don’t matter to him.

When most of us are looking for how to sell music more effectively, that’s a luxury we rarely enjoy.

So, at the least, think twice before you release an album without any radio singles.